Drug delivery is a persistent problem in the administration of active agents to patients. Conventional means for delivering active agents are often severely limited by biological, chemical, and physical barriers. Typically, these barriers are imposed by the environment through which delivery occurs, the environment of the target for delivery, or the target itself.
Biologically active agents are particularly vulnerable to such barriers. For example, in the delivery of pharmacological and therapeutic agents to humans, barriers are imposed by the body. Examples of physical barriers are the skin and various organ membranes that must be traversed before reaching a target. Chemical barriers include, but are not limited to, pH variations, lipid bi-layers, and degrading enzymes.
These barriers are of particular significance in the design of oral delivery systems. Oral delivery of many biologically active agents would be the route of choice for administration to animals if not for biological, chemical, and physical barriers such as varying pH in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, powerful digestive enzymes, and active agent impermeable gastrointestinal membranes. Among the numerous agents which are not typically amenable to oral administration are biologically active peptides, such as calcitonin and insulin; polysaccharides, and in particular mucopolysaccharides including, but not limited to, heparin; heparinoids; antibiotics; and other organic substances. These agents are rapidly rendered ineffective or are destroyed in the gastrointestinal tract by acid hydrolysis, enzymes, or the like.
However, broad spectrum use of drug delivery systems is often precluded because: (1) the systems require toxic amounts of adjuvants or inhibitors; (2) suitable low molecular weight active agents are not available; (3) the systems exhibit poor stability and inadequate shelf life; (4) the systems are difficult to manufacture; (5) the systems fail to protect the active agent; (6) the systems adversely alter the active agent; or (7) the systems fail to allow or promote absorption of the active agent.
There is still a need in the art for simple, inexpensive delivery systems which are easily prepared and which can deliver a broad range of active agents. One class of delivery system that has shown promise as excipients is diketopiperazines (DKP). In particular, 3,6-bis-substituted-2,5-diketopiperazines have been shown to effectively deliver biologically active agents across the lining of the lung.
Conventional synthesis of diketopiperazines proceeds via a cyclocondensation of two amino acid molecules or a dipeptide. One exemplary process for the synthesis of diketopiperazines, entails heating an amino acid (Cbz-L-lysine for example) in m-cresol for between 17 and 22 hours at 160-170° C., and recrystallizing the diketopiperazine from acetic acid for a yield of about 48%.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,709,639 to Stevenson et. al. details methods for the synthesis of bis-Cbz-N-protected diketopiperazines, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if recited fully herein.
Others have generated diketopiperazines from isolated dipetides by heating in an appropriate solvent while removing water by distillation. While these provide the desired diketopiperazines, the methods provide suboptimal yields and may require prolonged purification. Thus, there is a need for an improved method for the synthesis of disubstituted 2,5-diketopiperazines that provides the N-protected diketopiperazines in good yield while preserving the protecting groups and requiring minimal purification.